I've been out most of the day and had hoped someone might have beat me to this. It's sad to read of the death at 82 - not so old by today's standards - of Frank Prial, who served as wine critic of the New York Times starting in 1972, at the birth of modern wine writing, and continued for 30 years or so.

I guess I always gravitated to Prial because he came up through the ranks as a general news reporter, a career path that I would mirror a decade later on a much less imposing path, adding wine writing to my duties as news reporter at The Louisville Times starting in the early '80s. I always looked up to Prial as a kind of model, I guess, and felt close to him even after Parker and the Spectator came along and brought a very different approach to wine reporting.

He was a very nice fellow, from the little contact we actually had. His article on my winery was one of the first major reviews it received (mostly human interest because of the kosher aspect, rather than a wine review per se). I remember the almost painless interview, and he didn't misstate my answers, unlike many interviewers.

Actually, I just recently discovered Frank's writing through the New York Times Book of Wine that a I received as a gift a couple of months ago. I was immediately drawn to his approachable and friendly, yet intelligent and thorough style of journalism.